Your Fingerprints
by ShipsbyNoa
Summary: A peek into what Dick and Kory were thinking before and after THAT scene. Set during S1E05 - Together Mostly Dick's POV.


"You said you trusted the wrong person, what happened?"

Dick smiled. Kory had spent the better part of a day and half asking questions and inferring about his life. She was relentless, but in a charming and genuine way. He thought he saw concern when she climbed back into the car after he beat that man in front of his kid, and then he thought he heard it in her voice as dawn approached with both kids asleep in the back with him having been driving all night.

 _"Pull over before you kill us all,"_ She had said.

"I'd rather not talk about it," He said with a playful grin, although it wasn't entirely true. He was kind of digging her Detective role in a masochist sort of way. He'd decided he was going to tell them eventually, who he really was - just, not now.

She returned the smile. "Gosh, you're so secretive,"

She made him feel a little exposed, a feeling he wasn't well acquainted with, but he couldn't control the laughter that bubbled out of him at the chance to tease her back. "You're not exactly an open book yourself."

Her expression softened. "I don't know who I am, you're afraid to let people know who you are, there's a difference,"

Afraid. She's right. God, she's right even when she doesn't know it. "I'm still trying to figure it out, that's all."

"Well, maybe we can figure it out together."

He doesn't know if it's what she said or how she said it, but it sends a warm quiver through him. It sounds good to him. He sees hope in her face that he doesn't want to take away, and yet, he can't answer, or he'd be revealing a part of himself he didn't know until now was still there, the way she was revealing herself to him right now.

It was the way she looked at him that did him in, like he was a wonderland she wanted to climb inside of and never come out again. There was a part of him, the part he'd been trying to hush since he met her that hoped she would keep trying and maybe catch him off guard, forcing him to spit it all out without fear of consequence. He didn't want to carry it anymore, it had become heavy over the years, but he didn't know how to put it down, and why should he involve her in that?

That smile though, that face, made him want to give her everything. The more time they spent together, the more he wanted to let go and give in to whatever it was that had sparked between them, but he wasn't some wonderful mystery to unravel. It was all blood and brutality, and guilt and loneliness, and rage. It was not the kind of thing you gave to a pretty girl you liked, let alone a beautiful light masquerading as a long-legged beauty Queen.

He needed to create distance before her smile got them both into trouble. "You should get some rest, we leave first thing in the morning."

He made a conscious effort not to look back at all that glory he was walking away from, he already felt like an idiot.

After checking in on Rachel, he returned to his room.

He slumped down on the bed and switched on the TV, though he couldn't hear a thing from the drama he'd left it on because his conversation with Kory was on repeat. Let her in, he thought - but he couldn't get passed his own walls, the ones he'd built as an orphan who would never be the same after his parents died. He had never felt that kind of pain before and he never wanted to again, and so far, it had worked for him. And now Kory, and Rachel and Gar. And Kory.

He tuned back into the drama, pulling off his boots. The young woman arguing with her father who she'd just caught with a woman who wasn't her mother was wearing a purple hoodie, and cue Kory again, in his head. Her smile flashed behind his eyelids as he pinched them closed. "I need a shower." He stood. " a cold one."

Dick looked at her like she was a twinkle of stars. Kory didn't remember anyone looking at her like that, to be fair, she didn't remember much of anything, but the warm electric it filled her with every time, left her sure she would remember a feeling like that.

This was intoxicating, and somehow inevitable, whatever it was burning between. She wanted to lean all the way into it. "Well, maybe we can figure it out together,"

"You should get some rest, we leave first thing in the morning,"

Her heart sank a little, because she could feel him leaning too, before he righted himself. Stubborn bastard. All he had to do was loosen the reigns and let the mask slip enough for her to know for sure she wasn't the only one with all the feels, as Gar would say. She felt him pulling her closer, even when he made statements of the contrary. It was in the glint in his eyes when she teased him, the coy smile that revealed he'd probably thought about her naked, in the twitch of his cheek when she said something that made him feel exposed, and the way his fist got tighter on the gear stick every time his hand brushed her thigh.

She didn't know what she wanted when she crossed the street and entered the store, but as soon as she saw the aisle full of snacks, she rolled her eyes, how could she not get the brats something? As for the adult stuff, she decided on tequila and headed back to the motel, making a pit stop at beast boy's and raven girl's first, before heading to Dick's room.

He was wound too tight; a little drink was all he needed to loosen up a little.

She flicked her tongue across her lips and fluffed her hair.

And like she knew she was on his mind, the door knocked, and her voice came through it. Dick knew nothing was wrong when he opened the door, but he had to say something. Anything, so that things like, "God, you're beautiful," wouldn't slip out.

He couldn't help but smile when he saw the tequila, she really was relentless. He wasn't really listening to her as she slipped off her coat because she'd just slipped off her coat and now all he could focus on was her impossibly long legs, and that rich, dark as night skin, and her smile. That smile was devastatingly gorgeous.

He downed the tequila and put it down. Electricity sparked beneath his skin, hot and buzzing along his spine, down to his toes, but it wasn't the drink. He wanted to drown in her, and now that she was close, he couldn't hear the other voice anymore, the one warning him that he didn't know what he was getting himself into by giving in. No. Now she was the loudest thing in the room.

He took the glass from her hand and placed it down, and then did the same with the bottle. Their eyes met, and it was like something had been switched on, from the moment he first saw her he knew everything would change. The moment she turned around at that jukebox, he felt something deep inside give way, and ever since, the echo of it had been whispering things to him. Questions he knew he shouldn't be asking began to plague him; what she would taste like on his tongue, how she would feel beneath him, skin to skin - the noises she would make, if she would call his name. Now she was there, and they were alone, he had to know the answers.

He stood up, letting his eyes wander her frame, enjoying every inch of her before he'd even touched her, and every curve was perfect. With the kids occupied he didn't have to steal glances at her or pretend to brush her thigh when changing gears. He could take his time and get close, making mental notes about the parts of her body he wanted to explore. He settled his eyes on the curve of her breasts as her chest expanded, and her collar bone, and then up to those lips. She was a masterpiece.

Dick pushed her hair away and made gentle circles with his thumb across her cheek and chin. He pulled her in and when their lips touched, it set a hum in his chest - the heat of her touch rushing down to his groin. He wanted to take his time, he'd promised himself he would but now that he was touching her, and tasting her, he couldn't wait.

He spun her against the table and picked her up, settling her on his hips. Her hands through his hair sent tingles through his entire body and his kiss got hungrier. He walked them over to the bed and they landed with a bounce. Dick looked down at her and kissed her again before breaking away because he needed all this material off her body now. He started with her boots, high on her thighs and stubborn, like she was. "I can't get your boots off."

"I want them on."

He almost buckled as another heat inducing wave pulsed through his groin. "OK." He tucked his arm beneath her and pulled her on top of him.

Now she knew. Kory knew not only did he find her extremely attractive, but that he'd been longing to do those things to her, to devour every inch of her for quite some time. He could see it in her face when she came the first time, desire and then relief because he had revealed himself too, he felt the same and now she knew. He'd answered a question, solved a mystery of hers just by letting her in.

Dick had taken pleasure in unraveling her with his tongue and leaving bruising kisses along her inner thigh. He took pleasure in the pain she caused with her fingernails, digging and scratching his shoulders, but nothing prepared him for his own undoing when it was Kory's turn to map a course across the planes of his body. She moved with purpose and teased and pulled and sucked until the room around him was changing shapes. She fucked him like he was an old lover, like she knew exactly where every secret spot was and was rediscovering it.

He was sitting on the edge of the bed half-dressed and his body was still throbbing. He could feel the sensation of Kory's fingertips lingering all over his body. But that voice was creeping back, telling him he would only make a mess. Yet, he wanted to stay and run away because something about this moment, about them felt too big, and it was still swelling. Dick felt the bed shift as she climbed out of bed. He wanted this, maybe more than he should after so little time, but he couldn't have it, he knew that, so he zipped her up and told himself:

This was all temporary. They were to keep Rachel safe and once she was, Kory would have her own identity to untangle. "Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, not even sure he was ready to dissect what had happened.

"The sex, which part would you like to talk about?" She beamed, and he was sure now, that she was the sun.

He wasn't relieved she thought he meant the sex, but he was OK with it, it was easier than the other stuff. The reasons why they wanted to, why they did, what it meant, how they both felt, that was less easy considering he hadn't figured out a way to put it into language yet. "OK then, all good." And there it was, on her face, hope fading, because of him.

"But if you'd like to talk about the other stuff, we can,"

Dick weighed, "we should do it again sometime" with, "I'm a mess actually and I'll scare you away eventually", but he couldn't bring himself to start, and he couldn't look her in the eye. "I'll do one last check of the perimeter and then turn in for the night." He regretted saying it as soon as it came out of his mouth, but she had already started to move to the door. He should've said something else, anything else, about this, them. He wanted to call her back, ask her to stay, but his mouth wouldn't move.

The door closed. Dick 'Fuck-up' Grayson, everyone.

He stood and made the bed, and then pulled his jacket off the chair where Kory's was. It was perfect. She was perfect, and he ruined it. He ruins everything. He was in two minds about whether he should apologize for being abrupt or pretend it never happened, when the door knocked. Kory.

She'd decided for him.

He took a breath, ready to plead his case, and opened the door to find Motel lady instead.


End file.
